Album Review: Neck Deep - "Life's Not Out To Get You"

After they signed to Hopeless Records in 2013, Wrexham lads Neck Deep were catapulted to the top of the pop punk hierarchy with only two EPs under their belt. They released their critically acclaimed debut album, Wishful Thinking, last year, but this summer’s Life’s Not Out To Get You is their catchiest and most exciting work yet. 

Neck Deep don’t hesitate to get angry fingers pointing, opening the album with ‘Citizens of Earth’, an edgy and in-your-face track which gets you pumped for the rest of the album. It’s very different to anything they’ve produced before, but more similar to some of the stuff on their groundbreaking earlier EPs than Wishful Thinking which will undoubtedly please many longterm fans. It’s also a big ‘fuck you’ to the haters as the band mock some of their most common criticisms: “Fuck Neck Deep mate, they’re shit. Ben’s dad owns a record label”.

Then comes ‘Threat Level Midnight’, the most recent single, released a couple of days before to tip the hype surrounding the album over the edge. With vigorous drum work and catchy guitar riffs, it follows the traditional pop punk formula, but it’s expected from one of the most prominent bands of the genre. The other singles ‘Gold Steps’ and ‘Can’t Kick Up The Roots’- which first got tongues wagging back in May- are both upbeat summer anthems with unforgettable choruses and jammy guitars. ‘Can’t Kick Up The Roots’ also defies genre boundaries with vocalist, Ben Barlow, actually speaking fondly of his small hometown. 

The album is packed with other bouncy, posi tracks such as ‘Kali Ma’ but also features more emotional classic pop punk songs like ‘Lime St’. Neck Deep also pay tribute to the song that kickstarted their career, ‘A Part Of Me’, from their EP Rain in July with acoustic track ‘December’. It is sweet and mellow, but also heartbreaking, and many fans will surely find it relatable. ‘The Beach is For Lovers (Not Lonely Losers)’ and ‘Rock Bottom’ almost sound like they belong on an early 2000s blink-182 album with lots of bass and repetitive backing vocals, whilst ’Kali Ma’ and ‘Serpents’ feature Ben’s infamously clever wordplay and rhymes.

Having been produced by A Day To Remember’s Jeremy McKinnon, his stylistic influence is apparent, and perhaps some of the album’s successes should be credited to him. However, instrumentally Neck Deep have improved massively. Dani Abasi’s drumming is exceptional and it’s also great to see Ben exploring new horizons with his vocals. All in all, Life’s Not Out To Get You is a pretty standard pop punk album, but it is put together brilliantly. It is a fun, feel-good album that contradicts stereotypical modern day sad pop punk and will see the band reach incredible new heights. Neck Deep are doing the UK proud in a scene that is usually dominated by Americans, and proving without a doubt that the pop punk revival is only just beginning. Hell, it even finishes with the line: “resurrect and start again”.

For fans of: blink-182, A Day To Remember, The Wonder Years